With the wide spread acceptance of the Internet as an ubiquitous, interactive communication and interaction platform, on-line (or electronic) commerce conducted over the Internet has become commonplace in a variety of business environments. On-line commerce is traditionally categorized as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C) and even business-to-employee (B2E) commerce. In the B2B environment, a number of online exchanges or marketplaces (e.g., vertical exchanges) have been established with a view to facilitating electronic commerce between parties, for example, within a vertical supply chain. Such B2B exchanges typically provide a number of tools for facilitating commerce, such as aggregated and near real-time inventory information, Requests for Quotation (RFQ) capabilities and auctions.
In the B2C and C2C environments, a number of marketplace exchanges and transaction facilities have proved popular. A leading electronic commerce system (or marketplace) is operated by eBay, Incorporated. Electronic marketplaces are also provided by Yahoo! Incorporated and Amazon.com. Further, a number of on-line services offer on-line classifieds, such as the Yahoo! Classifieds service offered by Yahoo! Incorporated.
A number of the on-line marketplaces are utilized by merchants as an important, if not a primary, distribution channel for products. Further, various retailers and merchants also utilize free, or low-cost, classified advertisement services offered on the Internet, such as Yahoo! Classifieds.
In order to complete the purchase of these products, buyers generally provide checkout information such as credit card numbers, checking account numbers and shipping addresses to the seller upon winning or completing the purchase. In the case of on-line auctions, sellers often wait days or weeks for the buyer's check out information, or never receive it at all and are forced to relist the item. Additionally, buyers forget to provide their checkout information.